1.
9th century in architecture
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See also, 8th century in architecture, 10th century in architecture and the architecture timeline. About 800 – Borobudur temple in Java completed,802 Haeinsa of Korea, is constructed. Palace of Charlemagne in Aachen, Carolingian Empire completed, at Oviedo in the Kingdom of Asturias Cámara Santa constructed. First reconstruction of Oviedo Cathedral begun by Tioda,815 – Second Temple of Somnath built in the Pratihara Empire, India. 810s – Chapel of San Zeno in Santa Prassede, Rome decorated,818 – Old Cologne Cathedral built. 820s Imperial Abbey of Corvey on the Weser founded,827 – Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat, Egypt reaches its final form. 830–842 – Construction of basilica church of San Julián de los Prados in Oviedo, Kingdom of Asturias,836 Samarra founded in Mesopotamia as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Great Mosque of Kairouan founded in Aghlabid Tunisia,838 – Jawsaq Khakani Palace built in Samarra. 840s – Santa María del Naranco Hall, San Miguel de Lillo constructed,840 – The main pagoda of the Three Pagodas in Dali, Yunnan, China is built. C.842 – San Miguel de Lillo in Oviedo, Kingdom of Asturias is built,847 – St. Peters Basilica and Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome partly rebuilt. 848 First enlargement of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, in the Emirate of Cordoba finished, Santa María del Naranco built in Oviedo as part of a palace complex of Ramiro I King of Asturias c.850 – Prambanan Temple built in Java. 851 – Great Mosque of Sousse built in Aghlabid Tunisia,852 Great Mosque of Samarra and Malwiya Minaret completed. C.854 – Balkuwara Palace of Caliph Al-Mutawakkil built in Samarra,855 – Construction of the second Würzburg Cathedral. 858 – Invading Vikings set fire to the earliest church on the site of Chartres Cathedral,861 – Abu Dolaf Mosque built in Samarra. 864 – Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello partly rebuilt,869 – City walls of Dijon, Le Mans and Tours reconstructed. C.870 – Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul in Serbia is reconstructed,873 – Imperial Abbey of Corvey begun, church westwork completed c. 875 – Great Mosque of Kairouan in Aghlabid Tunisia reaches its current aspect, C.875 – The Great Basilica of Pliska, capital of the First Bulgarian Empire is finished. 879 Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Fustat, Tulunid Egypt finished, preah Ko, first temple built in the Khmer Empire capital of Hariharalaya

2.
1000s in architecture
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1001 – The Cathedral of Ani is built in Armenia. 1001 – St. Michaels Church, Hildesheim begun,1002 – Brihadishwara Temple of Thanjavur, India begun. 1008 – Rebuilt Torcello Cathedral in the Veneto consecrated,1009 – Saint-Martin-du-Canigou in Catalonia consecrated. Beginning of 11th century - Church of the Saviour at Berestove built

3.
Phnom Bakheng
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Phnom Bakheng at Angkor, Cambodia, is a Hindu and Buddhist temple in the form of a temple mountain. Dedicated to Shiva, it was built at the end of the 9th century, located atop a hill, it is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views of the much bigger temple Angkor Wat, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast. The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor, since 2004, World Monuments Fund has been working to conserve the temple in partnership with APSARA. Constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was in its day the temple of the Angkor region. It was the centerpiece of a new capital, Yasodharapura. By the kings order, he set up a linga on Sri Yasodharagiri, scholars believe that this passage refers to the consecration of the Phnom Bakheng temple approximately a century and a half earlier. Phnom Bakheng is one of 3 hilltop temples in the Angkor region that are attributed to Yasovarmans reign, the other two are Phnom Krom to the south near the Tonle Sap lake, and Phnom Bok, northeast of the East Baray reservoir. Surrounding the mount and temple, labor teams built an outer moat, avenues radiated out in the four cardinal directions from the mount. Later in its history, Phnom Bakheng was converted into a Buddhist temple, a monumental Sitting Buddha, now lost, was created on its upper tier. Across its west side, a Reclining Buddha of similar scale was crafted in stone, the outlines of this figure are still visible. Phnom Bakheng is a representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods. The temple is built in a form of seven levels. At the top level, five sandstone sanctuaries, in states of repair, stand in a quincunx pattern—one in the center. Originally,108 small towers were arrayed around the temple at ground level and on various of its tiers, jean Filliozat of the Ecole Francaise, a leading western authority on Indian cosmology and astronomy, interpreted the symbolism of the temple. The temple sits on a base and rises in five levels and is crowned by five main towers. One hundred four smaller towers are distributed over the four levels. Thirty-three is the number of gods who dwelt on Mount Meru, Phnom Bakhengs total number of towers is also significant. The center one represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the four lunar phases, the seven levels of the monument represent the seven heavens and each terrace contains 12 towers which represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter

4.
Khmer Empire
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The Khmer Empire, officially the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to modern Cambodia, was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. The empire, which out of the former kingdoms of Funan and Chenla. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, in present-day Cambodia, which was the site of the city during the empires zenith. Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world, the beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 CE. In this year, King Jayavarman II had himself declared chakravartin on Phnom Kulen, the empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century. The history of Angkor as the area of settlement of the historical kingdom of Kambujadesa is also the history of the Khmer kingdom from the 9th to the 13th centuries. From Kambuja itself — and so also from the Angkor region — no written records have survived other than stone inscriptions, according to Sdok Kok Thom inscription, circa 781 Indrapura was the first capital of Jayavarman II, located in Banteay Prei Nokor, near todays Kompong Cham. He then moved his court northwest to Mahendraparvata, far north from the great lake of Tonle Sap. At that ceremony Prince Jayavarman II was proclaimed a universal monarch or God King and he declared himself Chakravartin, in a ritual taken from the Indian-Hindu tradition. Thereby he not only became the divinely appointed and therefore uncontested ruler, at that time, Sailendras allegedly ruled over Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and parts of Cambodia, around the Mekong delta. The first pieces of information on Jayavarman II came from the K.235 stone inscription on a stele in Sdok Kok Thom temple, Isan region, dating to 1053. It recounts two and a half centuries of service members of the temples founding family provided for the Khmer court. This classical theory was revisited by scholars, such as Claude Jacques and Michael Vickery. Moreover, Jayavarmans political career began at Vyadhapura in eastern Cambodia, finally, many early temples on Phnom Kulen shows both Cham and Javanese influences, even if their asymmetric distribution seems typically khmer. He thereby laid the foundation of Angkor, which was to arise some 15 km to the northwest, Jayavarman II died in the year 835 and he was succeeded by his son Jayavarman III. Jayavarman III died in 877 and was succeeded by Indravarman I, the successors of Jayavarman II continually extended the territory of Kambuja. Indravarman I managed to expand the kingdom without wars, and he began extensive building projects, thanks to the wealth gained through trade, foremost were the temple of Preah Ko and irrigation works. Indravarman I developed Hariharalaya further by constructing Bakong circa 881, Bakong in particular bears striking similarity to the Borobudur temple in Java, which strongly suggests that it served as the prototype for Bakong

5.
Lips Monastery
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Fenâri Îsâ Mosque, in Byzantine times known as the Lips Monastery, is a mosque in Istanbul, made of two former Eastern Orthodox churches. The complex is located in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey, in 908, the Byzantine admiral Constantine Lips inaugurated a nunnery in the presence of the Emperor Leo VI the Wise. The nunnery was dedicated to the Virgin Theotokos Panachrantos in a place called Merdosangaris, the nunnery was known also after his name, and became one of the largest of Constantinople. The church was built on the remains of another shrine from the 6th century, relics of Saint Irene were stored here. The church is known as North Church. Several exponents of the dynasty of the Palaiologos were buried there besides Theodora, her son Constantine, Empress Irene of Montferrat. This church is known as the South Church. The Empress restored also the nunnery, which by that time had been possibly abandoned, according to its typikon, the nunnery at that time hosted a total of 50 women and also a Xenon for laywomen with 15 beds attached. During the 14th century an esonarthex and a parekklesion were added to the church, the custom of burying members of the imperial family in the complex continued in the 15th century with Anna, first wife of Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, in 1417. The church was used as a cemetery also after 1453. He built a minaret in the southeast angle, and a mihrab in the apse, since one of the head preachers of the madrasah was named Îsâ, his name was added to that of the mosque. The edifice burned down in 1633, was restored in 1636 by Grand Vizier Bayram Pasha, in this occasion the columns of the north church were substituted with piers, the two domes were renovated, and the mosaic decoration was removed. After another fire in 1782, the complex was restored again in 1847/48, in this occasion also the columns of the south church were substituted with piers, and the balustrade parapets of the narthex were removed too. The building burned once more in 1918, and was abandoned, during excavations performed in 1929, twenty-two sarcophagi have been found. The complex has been restored between the 1970s and 1980s by the Byzantine Society of America, and since then serves again as a mosque. During the Ottoman period the four columns have been replaced with two pointed arches which span the whole church. The dimensions of the church are small, the naos is 13 metres long and 9.5 metres wide. The masonry of the church was erected by alternating courses of bricks

6.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis

7.
Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems

8.
Uxmal
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Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period in present-day Mexico. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture, along with Palenque, Chichén, and Calakmul in Mexico, Caracol and Xunantunich in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala. It is located in the Puuc region and is considered one of the Maya cities most representative of the dominant architectural style. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its significance and it is located 62 km south of Mérida, capital of Yucatán state in Mexico. Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration and its buildings are typical of the Puuc style, with smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes based on representations of typical Maya huts. These are represented by columns and trapezoidal shapes, entwined snakes and, in many cases two-headed snakes are used for masks of the rain god, Chaac, its big noses represent the rays of the storms. Feathered serpents with open fangs are shown leaving from the human beings. Also seen in cities are the influences of the Nahua. These were integrated with the elements of the Puuc tradition. The present name seems to derive from Oxmal, meaning three times built and this seems to refer to the sites antiquity and the times it had to rebuild. The etymology is disputed, another possibility is Uchmal which means what is to come, by tradition, this was supposed to be an invisible city, built in one night by the magic of the dwarf king. While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation, the citys dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population is a rough guess. Most of the major construction took place while Uxmal was the capital of a Late Classic Maya state around 850-925 AD. After about 1000 AD, Toltec invaders took over, and most building ceased by 1100 AD, Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 A. D. by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family and it was the most powerful site in western Yucatán, and for a while, in alliance with Chichen Itza, dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200, no new major construction seems to have made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmals ally Chichen Itza. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined, Uxmal was dominant from 875 to 900 CE. The site appears to have been the capital of a state in the Puuc region from 850-950 CE

9.
Minden Cathedral
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Minden Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Gorgonius and Peter, is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Minden, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Today the church belongs to the diocese of Paderborn, over the course of many centuries, the cathedral grew from a simple Carolingian church to a monumental basilica. The High Gothic nave and its large tracery windows inspired a number of other buildings, during World War II, the church was almost completely destroyed by an aerial bombing conducted by US Army Air Force B17s on 28 March 1945. This almost completely destroyed the center including the town hall and cathedral. The church was rebuilt in the 1950s by architect Werner March, the church contains a number of valuable art treasures. From Rome in the 8th century the remains of St. Gorgonius were translated by Saint Chrodegang, some of the relics were later translated to Minden Cathedral

10.
Gndevank
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Gndevank is a 10th-century Armenian monastery in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia, along the Vayk-Jermuk road. The monastery is located on the west side of the Vayk-Jermuk road on the bank of the Arpo river, the old road is blocked by landslides and the monastery is approached by walking about 1.5 kilometres from the junction with the old road, after a bridge crossing. About 3 kilometres away from the church is the known as Vartan Mamikonian. There is a water in the vicinity of the church. The monastery was built in 936 AD by Princess Sephia of Syunik and she stated the purpose of her building the monastery as, Vatoits Dzor was a ring without a jewel but I built this monastery as the jewel for the ring. Priest Sargis was the first abbot of the church, priest Yeghishe was entrusted the responsibility for its construction. In 999 AD it was expanded with a gavit, a narthex or entrance to the church, in subsequent years the monastery was fortified with walls around it, under the orders of Abbot Petros. The monastery, which was damaged during an earthquake, was refurbished during 1965 and 1969, further renovations were done during 2013. In 1875, several items of religious paraphernalia were found in a chamber in the church. The church, well preserved, is dedicated to St. Stephen and it is built in the form of a cross-dome of four apses, with a circular tambour over a cupola. There are four altars in the church, the gavit, added in the western part of the church in subsequent years, is in the shape of barrel, it is vaulted and appears like a tunnel approach to the church. Abbot Christopher built the hall with two chambers. Sargis, who succeeded him, ordered the construction of a canal from the Vararakn River for providing a supply to the church. On the southern and western side of the wall, monks living quarters have been built. Of the surviving paintings, one by Yeghishe of Jesus Christ is on the altar wall. Another notable painting in the church is of Mother Mary on the northern annexed wall, the surfaces of the pendentives have carved images of the evangelists. The tombstones surrounding the church have carvings of interest, such as a scene of ibex hunting next to a falcon, between Islam and Byzantium, Aghtamar and the Visual Construction of Medieval Armenian Rulership. Armeniapedia. org, Gndevank A Flickr photo of Gndevank

11.
East Mebon
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The East Mebon is a 10th Century temple at Angkor, Cambodia. Built during the reign of King Rajendravarman, it stands on what was an island at the center of the now dry East Baray reservoir. The East Mebon was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and honors the parents of the king and its location reflects Khmer architects’ concern with orientation and cardinal directions. The temple was built on an axis with Rajendravarman’s state temple, Pre Rup. The East Mebon also lies on an east–west axis with the palace temple Phimeanakas, another creation of Rajendravarman’s reign, built in the general style of Pre Rup, the East Mebon was dedicated in 953 AD. It has two enclosing walls and three tiers and it includes the full array of durable Khmer construction materials, sandstone, brick, laterite and stucco. At the top is a tower on a square platform. The towers are of brick, holes that formerly anchored stucco are visible, the sculpture at the East Mebon is varied and exceptional, including two-meter-high free-standing stone elephants at corners of the first and second tiers. Religious scenes include the god Indra atop his three-headed elephant Airavata, and Shiva on his mount, carving on lintels is particularly elegant. Visitors looking out from the upper level today are left to imagine the vast expanses of water that formerly surrounded the temple, four landing stages at the base give reminder that the temple was once reached by boat. Angkor West Mebon Architecture of Cambodia Pre Rup Freeman, Michael and Jacques, Claude

12.
Angkor
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Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. Angkor was a megacity supporting at least 0. 1% of the population during 1010-1220. The city houses the magnificent Angkor Wat, one of Cambodias popular tourist attractions, the word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara, meaning city. A Khmer rebellion against Siamese authority resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya, the ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland north of the Great Lake and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern-day Siem Reap city, in Siem Reap Province. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, visitors approach two million annually, and the entire expanse, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom is collectively protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The popularity of the site among tourists presents multiple challenges to the preservation of the ruins, Angkor is considered to be a hydraulic city because it had a complicated water management network, which was used for systematically stabilizing, storing, and dispersing water throughout the area. This network is believed to have used for irrigation in order to offset the unpredictable monsoon season. Although the size of its remains a topic of research and debate. Before Jayavarman, Cambodia had consisted of a number of independent principalities collectively known to the Chinese by the names Funan. In 889, Yasovarman ascended to the throne, a great king and an accomplished builder, he was celebrated by one inscription as a lion-man, he tore the enemy with the claws of his grandeur, his teeth were his policies, his eyes were the Veda. Near the old capital of Hariharalaya, Yasovarman constructed a new city, in the tradition of his predecessors, he also constructed a massive reservoir called baray. The mountain, in turn, was represented by an elevated temple, in accordance with this cosmic symbolism, Yasovarman built his central temple on a low hill known as Phnom Bakheng, surrounding it with a moat fed from the baray. He also built numerous other Hindu temples and ashrams, or retreats for ascetics, over the next 300 years, between 900 and 1200, the Khmer Empire produced some of the worlds most magnificent architectural masterpieces in the area known as Angkor. Some 72 major temples or other buildings are found within this area, because of the low-density and dispersed nature of the medieval Khmer settlement pattern, Angkor lacks a formal boundary, and its extent is therefore difficult to determine. In terms of spatial extent, this makes it the largest urban agglomeration in recorded history prior to the Industrial Revolution, at its peak, the city occupied an area greater than modern Paris, and its buildings use far more stone than all of the Egyptian structures combined. The principal temple of the Angkorian region, Angkor Wat, was built between 1113 and 1150 by King Suryavarman II, Suryavarman ascended to the throne after prevailing in a battle with a rival prince. An inscription says that, in the course of combat, Suryavarman leapt onto his rivals war elephant and killed him, just as the mythical bird-man Garuda slays a serpent. Breaking with the tradition of the Khmer kings, and influenced perhaps by the concurrent rise of Vaisnavism in India, the traditional theme of identifying the Khmer devaraja with the gods, and his residence with that of the celestials, is very much in evidence

13.
Kaminarimon
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The Kaminarimon is the outer of two large entrance gates that ultimately leads to the Sensō-ji in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. The gate, with its lantern and statues, is popular with tourists and it stands 11.7 m tall,11.4 m wide and covers an area of 69.3 m2. The first gate was built in 941, but the current gate dates from 1960, the Kaminarimon was first built in 941 by Taira no Kinmasa, a military commander. It was originally located near Komagata, but it was reconstructed in its current location in 1635 and this is believed to be when the statues of Raijin and Fūjin were first placed on the gate. The gate has been destroyed many times throughout the ages, four years after its relocation, the Kaminarimon burned down, and in 1649 Tokugawa Iemitsu rebuilt the gate along with several other of the major structures in the temple complex. The gate burnt to the ground in 1757 and again in 1865, the Kaminarimons current structure was dedicated in December 1960. Four statues are housed in the Kaminarimon, two in the front alcoves and two on the other side, on the front of the gate, the statues of the Shinto gods Fūjin and Raijin are displayed. Fūjin, the god of wind, is located on the east side of the gate, while Raijin, the original sculptures were severely damaged in the fire of 1865, with only the heads being saved, and the statues restored for the gates 1960 reconstruction. Two additional statues stand on the reverse of the gate, the Buddhist god Tenryū on the east, and these were donated in 1978 to commemorate the 1350th anniversary of the first appearance of the bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteśvara at Asakusa, which led to the founding of Sensō-ji. The statues were carved by master sculptor Hirakushi Denchū. In the center of the Kaminarimon, under the gate, hangs a giant red chōchin that is 4 meters tall,3.4 meters in circumference, being very fragile, the lantern is not an original piece. The front of the displays the gates name, Kaminarimon. Painted on the back is the official name, Fūraijinmon. A wooden carving depicting a dragon adorns the bottom of the lantern, during festivals such as Sanja Matsuri, the lantern is collapsed to let tall objects pass through the gate. The characters 金龍山 on the tablet above the lantern read from right to left and reference the Sensō-ji

14.
Tokyo
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Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of its 47 prefectures. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous area in the world. It is the seat of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Formerly known as Edo, it has been the de facto seat of government since 1603 when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made the city his headquarters. It officially became the capital after Emperor Meiji moved his seat to the city from the old capital of Kyoto in 1868, Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo, the metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the wards is over 9 million people. The prefecture is part of the worlds most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 37.8 million people, the city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked third in the International Financial Centres Development IndexEdit, the city is also home to various television networks such as Fuji TV, Tokyo MX, TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Nippon Television, NHK and the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Tokyo ranked first in the Global Economic Power Index and fourth in the Global Cities Index. The city is considered a world city – as listed by the GaWCs 2008 inventory – and in 2014. In 2015, Tokyo was named the Most Liveable City in the world by the magazine Monocle, the Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked first in the world in the Safe Cities Index, the 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Tokyo as the 3rd-best city in the world to be a university student. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1979 G-7 summit, the 1986 G-7 summit, and the 1993 G-7 summit, and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo was originally known as Edo, which means estuary. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called Tōkei, some surviving official English documents use the spelling Tokei. However, this pronunciation is now obsolete, the name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kondō Hisaku, written by Satō Nobuhiro. When Ōkubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi, Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo, in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the twelfth century

15.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon

16.
Medina Azahara
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It was an Arab Muslim medieval town and the de facto capital of al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain, as the heart of the administration and government was within its walls. Built beginning in 936-940, the city included ceremonial reception halls, mosques, administrative and government offices, gardens, a mint, workshops, barracks, residences, and baths. The main reason for its construction was politico-ideological, the dignity of the Caliph required the establishment of a new city, above all, it demonstrated his superiority over his great rivals, the Fatimids of Ifriqiya in Northern Africa, as well as the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad. Legend also says it was built as a tribute to the favourite of the Caliph, the complex was extended during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman IIIs son Al-Hakam II, but after his death soon ceased to be the main residence of the Caliphs. In 1010 it was sacked in a war, and thereafter abandoned. Its ruins were excavated starting from the 1910s, spaces associated with the palace guard, some large administrative buildings. The extraordinary court complex presided over by the reception hall, the great garden spaces, and just outside this area, the congregational mosque. There was also a quarry of limestone, used for the primary construction, the citys construction led to a road, water and supply infrastructure partly preserved until today in the form of remains of roads, quarries, aqueducts and bridges. The topography played a role in shaping the city. Taking full advantage of the terrain, the palace city of Madinat az-Zahra was distributed in three terraces. Unlike the labyrinthine and chaotic character typical of Muslim urbanism, the site of the city adopted a rectangular shape comprising an area of 112 hectares. It extended 1,500 metres per side from east to west and about 750 metres from north to south, just warped on the north side by the need to adapt to the difficult topography of the terrain. Next is the city proper, with housing, crafts, the only spaces built on the lowest level are two broad bands, the western, with an urban management orthogon, and the eastern, with less rigid planning. There were two complexes outside but close by the city, one a large villa at the centre of an agricultural estate. The other, Turruñuelos, was a rectangular building, perhaps a barracks. In turn, the section of the old Roman aqueduct now diverted was used as a sewer for a highly complex system of small channels carrying away rain. Many food and ceramic remains have been found here, the initial construction of the palace was very rapid, begun in 936 or 940, the mosque was completed in 941 and by 945 the caliph was in residence, moving in the mint by 947. However, construction continued for decades, with changes of plan

17.
Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral
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Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral, and French national monument, located in the town of Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne. It is the seat of the Archbishops of Clermont and it is built entirely in black lava stone, which makes it highly distinctive, and visible from a great distance. Its twin spires are 108 metres tall, and tower above the towns rooftops, in the 5th century, bishop Namatius laid the foundations of the citys first cathedral, allowing the Christian community to leave its ghetto, the vicus christianorum. He dedicated the building to Saints Vitalis and Agricola, whose relics he brought from Bologna and it was 43 metres long and on a basilica plan, as is known by the account of Gregory of Tours. It was ornamented in marble, with a nave, two aisles, a transept and 70 columns. It was destroyed in 760 by Pepin the Short who, repenting of this act, gave a sum to bishop Haddebert to finance his reconstruction work. This second structure was destroyed, this time by the Normans. Bishop Stephen II built a third Roman cathedral, which was consecrated in 946, unsurpassed, this building probably served as the model and prototype for many churches in the Auvergne. The present crypt dates back to this 10th century church, in 1248, inspired by a visit on Sainte-Chapelle on a trip to Paris, bishop Hugues de la Tour decided to launch work on a new cathedral. Constructing a church in the prestigious Northern Gothic style would thus allow him to assert his supremacy over a city that had put back into its bishops power just some decades earlier. Notre-Dame-du-Port, that had inspired the cathedral of Stephen II, would again be surpassed. The main originality of the structure is the used, the rock from Volvic that gives the building its dark colour. Jean Deschamps was entrusted with the work and he had already worked on the cathedrals at Narbonne and Limoges. Jean worked from 1248 to 1287 on the choir, in which Louis IX came to marry his son to Isabella of Aragon, the king financed part of the stained glass windows that appear to be from the same workshop as those in Sainte-Chapelle. The choir, the transept and the start of the nave were finished about 1295, pierre Deschamps took over from his father up to 1325, pushing the works beyond the transept crossing. From 1325 to 1340, the towers of the arms were raised by an anonymous master. One of them is familiar, the de la Bayette. During the years followed, the chapter was satisfied to have him sculpt a new doorjamb for the door of its sacristy

18.
St Nicholas' Church, Worth
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St Nicholas Church is a Church of England parish church in Worth, a village in Crawley, England which at one time had the largest geographical parish in England. St Nicholas’ Church, Worth, is one of the oldest churches in the country and has been a place of Christian worship and devotion for well over 1000 years. It is known that the church is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and it was built in what, at the time, was a forest. As it was a large church isolated in the forest, it is unlikely it was just for local needs, in the 14th century, the church was passed from the de Warrenne family to the Fitzalan family, who lost it in 1415 to Nevills, Earl of Abergavenny. Records of bell-ringing here go back to 1684, and bell-ringing still remains part of the weekly routine, the current tower, with its broached and shingled spire, was added in 1871 by Anthony Salvin. to replace an earlier building which rested on tree trunks. A note from 1684 reveals that the church had 3 bells, the bells were re-cast in 1844 to form a peal of 6 and then again, by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon, in 1928. Since 1928, only routine maintenance was needed until 1997, when work on the bells was carried out. Pulleys, wheels and clappers were removed and taken to the foundry for refurbishment, they were then refitted and the bells rehung. The bells are hung in the oak frame dating from the 1844 installation. The largest bell, the tenor, is 91cm in diameter and its note is A, the whole ring being harmonically tuned in the key of A. The total weight of bells in the tower is over 36cwt, in 1986 workmen were treating roof timbers of the church for protection against vermin when a fire broke out. The fire brigade put out the blaze, saving the main building. This rendered the building unstable, however, which resulted in much scaffolding being put up, the roof was redesigned and the walls were strengthened. New floors and pews were fitted, the new pews, unlike the pre-restoration ones, are easier to move, giving the church more flexibility. The old pews were considered impossible to re-install in the church, the restoration cost about £510,000 and was complete by 1988. It was during the renovation work that archaeologists were able to confirm the dating of the church’s original construction. Worth Church is still in use as a church today. Weddings, baptisms and funerals are all popular in this attractive venue, about 150 people are officially on the parishs electoral roll, and up to 400 people attend major services at Christmas and Easter

19.
St. Cyriakus, Gernrode
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St. Cyriakus is a medieval church in Gernrode, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is one of the few surviving examples of Ottonian architecture, built in 959/960-965 by Margrave Gero and it is now used by the Protestant community of Gernrode. The church is part of the tourist route Romanesque Road, as it is an important example of an Ottonian church which inspired later, fully Romanesque, churches, Gero was a follower of Otto I from one of the most powerful families of eastern Saxony. In 937, Otto made Gero Margrave of the Eastern March, Gero, who owned a castle at Gernrode, decided to found a collegiate church and female convent here, in cooperation with his son Siegfried. Construction on the crypt, the apse and the convent started in 959. In 961, the foundation was awarded royal protection and in 963 the pope issued a privilege, Siegfried had died heirless in 959. After Siegfrieds death, his widow Hathui had become abbess of the convent, Gero returned from a trip to Rome with a valuable relic of Saint Cyriacus and the church was dedicated to this saint in 963. In 965, Gero died and was buried in front of the already finished eastern choir, a hiatus in construction followed Geros death and is seen as the likely source of the shift in the churchs axis - see map. Hathui ruled the convent for 55 years until her death in 1014, in 999, Emperor Otto III granted the convent Imperial status and in 1004, Empress Kunigunde, wife of Emperor Heinrich II visited the convent. The first stage of construction ended in 1014 and that same year, on Hathuis death, Adelheid, daughter of Emperor Otto II succeeded her as abbess. Adelheid held that position until 1044, additions to the church in the 11th and 12th centuries include the west crypt, side galleries, the enlargement of the westwork and the towers and the two-storey cloisters. In 1188, Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa held court at Gernrode, the vaults of the transept were added in the Gothic period. The last Catholic abbess was Scholastika von Anhalt Dessau and her successor, Elisabeth von Weida introduced Reformation in 1521. In 1525, Elisabeth managed to prevent damage to the convent during the German Peasants War, with its introduction into the Landeskirche the convent lost its independence and fell under the influence of the local princes. Abbess Anna von Plauen founded the first school and supported the role in providing medical care. From 1533, the church was shared with the parish. When Gernrode was awarded the status of town in 1539, the abbess donated a coat of arms, the last Stiftsdame, Sophia Elisabeth von Anhalt, died in 1616. In 1619, the became a secular domain of the prince

20.
Marca Geronis
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The Marca Geronis was a vast super-march in the middle of the tenth century. It was created probably for Thietmar and passed to his two sons consecutively, Siegfried and Gero, on Geros death in 965 it was divided into five different marches, the Nordmark, the Ostmark, Meissen, Zeitz, and Merseburg. Because Siegfrieds and Geros comital seat was Merseburg, it has sometimes called the March of Merseburg. However, there is also a Merseburger march which grew out of it after 965, because the central diocese in his march was Magdeburg, sometimes it is called the March of Magdeburg. Other historians prefer to call it the Eastern March or Ostmark, because the marca Geronis was created simultaneously with the March of Billung to the north, it is sometimes said to be the southern half of the Ostmark. Some historians even call it the March of Meissen, within the span of one page, James Westfall Thompson, referred to it as both the Sorben Mark and the Thuringian March. Part of the involved in ascertaining the territoriality of the march over which Gero ruled is the nature of the margravial title in tenth-century Saxony. It has been suggested that marcher jurisdictions even overlapped within provinces, in 965, Merseburg became the centre of a smaller, more restricted march belonging to Gunther. On Gunthers death in 982, it was united to the March of Meissen, germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.1928, the English Historical Review, Vol.96, No.381. Henry I and the Beginnings of the Saxon Empire, the English Historical Review, Vol.83, No.326. The Fall of the Monarchy of Mieszko II, Lambert, the First Wave of the Drang Nach Osten. Cambridge Historical Journal, Vol.7, No.3, artibus et Historiae, Vol.12, No.23. The Northern Serbs or Sorabians and the Obodriti, the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.9

21.
Tiger Hill Pagoda
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The Tiger Hill Pagoda, more officially the Yunyan Pagoda, also sometimes translated as Huqiu Tower, is a Chinese pagoda situated on Tiger Hill in Suzhou city, Jiangsu Province of Eastern China. It is nicknamed the Leaning Tower of China, the primary pagoda of the former Yunyan Temple, which was founded in 327 and rebuilt for the last time in 1871. The temple suffered damage in successive wars and most of the temple was destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Some elements of the such as the formal entrance, the Yunyan Pagoda, and several other buildings and smaller shrines have survived. Construction of the began in 907 CE, during the later period of the Five Dynasties period. Construction was completed in 961 CE during the Song Dynasty, the uppermost stories of the pagoda were built as an addition during the reign of the Chongzhen Emperor, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The Yunyan Pagoda rises to a height of 47 m, the pagoda has seven stories and is octagonal in cross-section, and was built with a masonry structure designed to imitate wooden-structured pagodas prevalent at the time. In more than a thousand years the pagoda has gradually slanted due to forces of nature, now the top and bottom of the tower vary by 2.32 meters. The entire structure weighs some 7,000,000 kilograms, however, the pagoda leans roughly 3 degrees due to the cracking of two supporting columns. The pagoda leans because the foundation is originally half rock and the other half is on soil, in 1957, efforts were made to stabilize the pagoda and prevent further leaning. Concrete was also pumped into the forming a stronger foundation. During the reinforcement process, a casket containing Buddhist scriptures was found. The container had an inscription noting the date of the pagoda as the seventeenth day of the twelfth month of the second year of the Jianlong era. The Yunyan Pagoda is a designated Major National Historical and Cultural Site in Jiangsu, as of September 2010 public access to the top of the tower is no longer allowed. Impressions of a Civil Engineer in China, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, Song Dynasty architecture Major national historical and cultural sites

22.
Suzhou
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Suzhou, formerly romanized as Soochow, is a major city located in southeastern Jiangsu Province of East China, about 100 km northwest of Shanghai. It is an economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. The city is situated on the reaches of the Yangtze River. Administratively, Suzhou is a city with a population of 4.33 million in its city proper. Its urban population grew at a rate of 6. 5% between 2000 and 2014, which is the highest among cities with more than 5 million people. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou has over 2,500 years of history, with an abundant display of relics, around AD100, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, it became one of the ten largest cities in the world mostly due to emigration from Northern China. Since the 10th-century Song Dynasty, it has been an important commercial center of China, during the Ming and Qing Dynasty, Suzhou was a national economic, cultural, and commercial center, as well as the largest non-capital city in the world, until the 1860 Taiping Rebellion. When Li Hongzhang and Charles George Gordon recaptured the city three years later, Shanghai had already taken its predominant place in the nation. Since major economic reforms began in 1978, Suzhou has become one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The citys canals, stone bridges, pagodas, and meticulously designed gardens have contributed to its status as one of the top tourist attractions in China, the Classical Gardens of Suzhou were added to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997 and 2000. Suzhou is often dubbed the Venice of the East or Venice of China, during the Zhou, a settlement known as Gusu after nearby Mount Gusu became the capital of the state of Wu. From this role, it came to be called Wu as well. In 514 BC, King Helü of Wu established a new capital nearby at Helü City, during the Warring States period, Helü City continued to serve as the local seat of government. From the areas it administered, it known as Wuxian. Under the Qin, it was known as Kuaiji after its greatly enlarged commandery, the name Suzhou was first officially used for the city in AD589 during the Sui dynasty. The character 蘇 or 苏 is a contraction of the mountain, the sū in its name refers to the mint perilla. The character 州 originally meant something like a province or county, Suzhou is the Hanyu Pinyin spelling of the Mandarin pronunciation of the name. Prior to the adoption of pinyin, it was romanized as Soo-chow, Suchow, Su-chow

23.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing

24.
Pre Rup
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Pre Rup is a Hindu temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built as the state temple of Khmer king Rajendravarman and dedicated in 961 or early 962. It is a mountain of combined brick, laterite and sandstone construction. The temple’s name is a modern one meaning turn the body. This reflects the belief among Cambodians that funerals were conducted at the temple. Located just south of the East Baray, or eastern reservoir, Pre Rup is aligned on an axis with the East Mebon temple. The East Mebon was also a creation of the reign of Rajendravarman, Pre Rups extensive laterite and brick give it a pleasing reddish tone that is heightened by early morning and late afternoon sunlight. The temple has a square lay-out and two perimeter walls, the outer enclosure is a platform bounded by a laterite wall,117 meters N-S by 127 meters E-W. A laterite causeway gives entry from the east, unfortunately, a modern road cuts across it, the four external gopuras are cross-shaped, having a central brick section and a sandstone vestibule on both sides. To either side inside the gate is a group of three towers aligned north to south. One of the towers appears to have never built or to have been dismantled later, however they are later additions. Further ahead, through another gate, libraries lie to either side of the walkway on the second platform, just before the entrance there is a stone cistern, but scholars believe it was a basement for a Nandi bronze statue rather than being used for cremation ceremonies. There is also a series of long distinct galleries running along each side, the final squared pyramid, measuring 50 m at its base, rises in three steep tiers a dozen metres in height to a 35 m square platform at the summit. The lowest tier is symmetrically surrounded by 12 small shrines, at the top, five towers are arranged in a quincunx, one at each corner of the square and one in the center. Deities carved as bas-reliefs stand guard at either side of the central tower’s eastern door, the southwest tower once contained a statue of Lakshmi, the northwest tower a statue of Uma, the southeast tower a statue of Vishnu and the northeast tower a statue of Shiva. The last one has an inscription on doorjambs that dates from Jayavarman VI and is the proof of his reign at Angkor. Pre Rup was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, and it is located on a former shivaite ashram. Dumarçay, Jacques, Royère, Pascal, Smithies, Michael, Kähler, Hans, Arps, Ben, Spuler, Bertold, Altenmüller, cambodian Architecture, Eight to Thirteenth Century. The Monuments of the Angkor Group, M. A. Sullivans photos of Pre Rup on Bluffton University website

25.
Cluny
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Cluny or Clugny is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department of the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon, the town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910. The height of Cluniac influence was from the half of the 10th century through the early 12th. The abbey was sacked by the Huguenots in 1562, and many of its valuable manuscripts were destroyed or removed, the river Grosne flows northward through the commune and crosses the town

26.
St. Maria im Kapitol
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St. Maria im Kapitol is an 11th-century Romanesque church located in the Kapitol-Viertel in the old town of Cologne, Germany. The Roman Catholic church is based on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, was dedicated to St. Mary and it is one of twelve Romanesque churches built in Cologne during this period. Measuring 100 m x 40 m and encompassing 4,000 square metres of internal space, like many of the latter, it has an east end which is trefoil in shape, with three apses. It has a nave and aisles and three towers to the west and it is considered the most important work of German church architecture of the Salian dynasty. Maria im Kapitol is said to have built by Plectrudis. The foundations of a Roman temple from the late 1st century AD, dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, Maria im Kapitol at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Cloisters of St. Maria im Kapitol at Wikimedia Commons official site St. Maria im Kapitol at Structurae

27.
Cologne
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Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres from Belgium. The citys famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, the University of Cologne is one of Europes oldest and largest universities. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the first century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Cologne, the French version of the citys name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, during the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval. Up until World War II the city had several occupations by the French. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many buildings as possible. Cologne is a cultural centre for the Rhineland, it hosts more than thirty museums. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics, the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom, and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, in 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD, considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900-year-old Roman boat was made in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius, in 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it one of the most important trade. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map, maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462, parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire, Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period, under Charlemagne, in 795, bishop Hildebold was promoted to archbishop

28.
Banteay Srei
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Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey is a 10th-century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the area of Angkor in Cambodia and it lies near the hill of Phnom Dei,25 km north-east of the main group of temples that once belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is built largely of red sandstone, a medium that lends itself to the decorative wall carvings which are still observable today. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually so when measured by the standards of Angkorian construction and these factors have made the temple extremely popular with tourists, and have led to its being widely praised as a precious gem, or the jewel of Khmer art. Consecrated on 22 April 967 A. D, the foundational stela says that Yajnavaraha, grandson of king Harsavarman I, was a scholar and philanthropist who helped those who suffered from illness, injustice, or poverty. His pupil was the future king Jayavarman V. Originally, the temple was surrounded by a town called Īśvarapura, yajñavarāhas temple was primarily dedicated to the Hindu god Śiva. Originally, it carried the name Tribhuvanamaheśvara—great lord of the threefold world—in reference to the Shaivite linga that served as its central religious image, some have speculated that it relates to the many devatas carved into the walls of the buildings. Bantãy Srĕi was subject to expansion and rebuilding work in the eleventh century. It remained in use at least until the fourteenth century according to the last known inscription K569, the temple was rediscovered only in 1914, and was the subject of a celebrated case of art theft when André Malraux stole four devatas in 1923. Until the discovery of the stela in 1936, it had been assumed that the extreme decoration indicated a later date than was in fact the case. To prevent the site from water damage, the joint Cambodian-Swiss Banteay Srei Conservation Project installed a system between 2000 and 2003. Measures were also taken to prevent damage to the walls from nearby trees. Unfortunately, the temple has been ravaged by pilfering and vandalism, when toward the end of the 20th century authorities removed some original statues and replaced them with concrete replicas, looters took to attacking the replicas. A statue of Shiva and his shakti Uma, removed to the National Museum in Phnom Penh for safekeeping, was assaulted in the museum itself, Banteay Srei is built largely of a hard red sandstone that can be carved like wood. Brick and laterite were used only for the walls and some structural elements. The temple is known for the beauty of its sandstone lintels, a pediment is the roughly triangular space above a rectangular doorway or openings. At Banteay Srei, pediments are relatively large in comparison to the openings below, for the first time in the history of Khmer architecture, whole scenes of mythological subject-matter are depicted on the pediments. A lintel is a beam spanning the gap between two posts

29.
Baksei Chamkrong
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Baksei Chamkrong is a small Hindu temple located in the Angkor complex. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva and used to hold an image of him. The temple can be seen on the side when entering Angkor Thom at the southern gate. It was dedicated to Yasovarman by his son, King Harshavarman I, the temple was completed by Rajendravarman II. The name Baksei Chamkrong means The Bird Who Shelters Under Its Wings, in it, the king tried to flee Angkor during a siege and then a huge bird landed and sheltered him under its wings. This temple is one of the first temples constructed of material such as bricks and laterite. Much of the stucco on the surface of the temple has vanished, the main sandstone lintel is decorated with a fine carving of Indra standing on his three-headed elephant Airavata. Garlands emanate from either side of Indra in the current to the monument. There is an inscription on side of the small doorway. The pyramid measures 27 metres across at the base and 15 at the summit for a height of 13 metres

30.
Muktesvara deula
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Mukteshvara Temple is a 10th-century Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The temple dates back to 950–975 CE and is a monument of importance in the study of the development of Hindu temples in Odisha and it is one of the prominent tourist attractions of the city. The Mukteshvara Temple is found to be the earliest work from the Somavamshi period, most scholars believe the temple is the successor to Parashurameshvara Temple and built earlier to the Brahmeswara Temple. Percy Brown puts the date of construction of the temple to 950 CE, the presence of a torana, which is not part of any other temple in the region, makes this temple unique and some of the representations indicate the builders were starters of a new culture. K. C. Panigrahi places the temple to be built during 966 CE, there is no historic evidence to conclude that Yayati had built the temple. This architecture is one of the reasons why Mukteshvara Temple is also known as the Gem of Odisha architecture. The temple faces west and is constructed in a lower basement amidst a group of temples, the pyramidal roof to the jagamohana present in the temple was the first of its kind over the conventional two tier structure. The temple is a small one compared to other temples in Bhubaneswar. The temples is enclosed within a compound wall with elaborate carvings on it. The temple has a porch, called torana, which acts as the gateway to the octagonal compound, the temple has two structures namely, the vimana and a mukhasala, the leading hall, both of which are built on a raised platform. The temple is the earlies to be built in pithadeula type, the most important feature of the Mukteshvara Temple is the torana, or the arched gateway, dating back to about 900 CE and showing the influence of Buddhist architecture. The arched gateway has thick pillars that have strings of beads, the porch is a walled chamber with a low, massive roof and internal pillars. The combination of vertical and horizontal lines is skilfully arranged so as to give dignity of buildings of moderate height and this early astylar form of the temple is best illustrated in this temple. The gateway has sculptures that range from elaborate scrolls to pleasant female forms and figures of monkeys, the front and back of the arch are similar in design. The Vimana is square in plan and is built in a platform with pilasters in each facade. The shikara is small compared to other temples, it has four Natarajas on, the top portion of the shikara has the kalasa. The shikara is 10.5 metres tall, with every inch sculpted with patterns, architectural patterns. A new form of decoration called bho, possibly developed here and it is a highly ornate chaitya window crowned by masked demon head and dwarf figures

31.
Bhubaneswar
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Bhubaneswar, also spelt as Bhubaneshwar /ˌbʊbəˈneɪʃwər/, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. It is the largest city in Odisha and is a centre of economic, along with the old town, the region of Bhubaneswar, historically was often depicted as Ekamra Kshetra. Although the modern city of Bhubaneswar was formally established only in 1948, with many 8th-12th century CE Hindu temples, which span the entire spectrum of Kalinga architecture, Bhubaneswar is often referred to as a Temple City of India. With Puri and Konark it forms the Swarna Tribhuja, one of eastern Indias most visited destinations, Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as the capital on 19 August 1949,2 years after India gained its independence from Britain. The modern city was designed by the German architect Otto Königsberger in 1946, along with Jamshedpur and Chandigarh, it was one of modern Indias first planned cities. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are often referred to as the cities of Odisha. The metropolitan area formed by the two cities had a population of 1.7 million in 2011, Bhubaneswar is categorised as a Tier-2 city. An emerging information technology and education hub, Bhubaneswar is one of the countrys fastest-developing cities, the foundation of the modern Bhubaneswar city was laid in 1948, although the areas in and around the city have a history going back to 1st century BCE or earlier. Dhauli, near Bhubaneswar is the site of the Kalinga War, one of the most complete edicts of the Mauryan Emperor, Ashoka, dating from between 272–236 BCE, remains carved in rock 8 kilometres to the southwest of the modern city. After the decline of the Mauryan empire, the area came under the rule of Mahameghavahana dynasty and his Hathigumpha inscription is located at the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves near Bhubaneswar. The area was ruled by several dynasties, including Satavahanas, Guptas, Matharas. In 7th century, Somavamshi or Keshari dynasty established their kingdom in the area, after the Kesharis, the Eastern Gangas ruled Kalinga area until 14th century CE. Their capital Kalinganagar was located in present-day Bhubaneswar district, after them, Mukunda Deva of the Bhoi dynasty – the last Hindu ruler of the area until the Marathas – developed several religious buildings in the area. Most of the temples in Bhubaneswar were built between 8th and 12th centuries, under Shaiva influence. The Ananta Vasudeva Temple is the old temple of Vishnu in the city. In 1568, the Karrani dynasty of Afghan origin gained control of the area, during their reign, most of the temples and other structures were destroyed or disfigured. In the 16th century, the area came under Mughal control, the Marathas, who succeeded the Mughals in mid-18th century, encouraged pilgrimage in the region. In 1803, the area came under British colonial rule, and was part of the Bengal Presidency, Bihar and Orissa Province, the capital of the British-ruled Orissa Province was Cuttack, which was vulnerabile to floods and suffered from space constraints

32.
Odisha
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Odisha (/ɒˈrɪsə, ɔː-, oʊ-/, is one of the 29 states of India, located in the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, Odisha has 485 kilometres of coastline along the Bay of Bengal on its east, from Balasore to Malkangiri. It is the 9th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population and it is also the 3rd most populous state of India in terms of tribal population. Odia is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census. The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, the modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day, the region is also known as Utkala and is mentioned in Indias national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in c,1135, after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers, through the British era until 1948. Thereafter, Bhubaneswar became the capital of Odisha, the term Odisha is derived from the ancient Prakrit word Odda Visaya as in the Tirumalai inscription of Rajendra Chola I, which is dated to 1025. Sarala Das, who translated the Mahabharata into the Odia language in the 15th century, calls the region Odra Rashtra, the inscriptions of Kapilendra Deva of the Gajapati Kingdom on the walls of temples in Puri call the region Odisha or Odisha Rajya. After a brief debate, the house, Lok Sabha, passed the bill. On 24 March 2011, Rajya Sabha, the house of Parliament, also passed the bill. Prehistoric Acheulian tools dating to Lower Paleolithic era have been discovered in places in the region. Kalinga has been mentioned in ancient texts like Mahabharata, Vayu Purana, the Sabar people of Odisha have also been mentioned in the Mahabharata. Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as not yet being influenced by Vedic traditions, Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty conquered Kalinga in the bloody Kalinga War in 261 BCE, which was the eighth year of his reign. According to his own edicts, in that war about 100,000 people were killed,150,000 were captured, the resulting bloodshed and suffering of the war is said to have deeply affected Ashoka. He turned into a pacifist and converted to Buddhism, by c.150 CE, emperor Kharavela, who was possibly a contemporary of Demetrius I of Bactria, conquered a major part of the Indian sub-continent. He also built the monastery atop the Udayagiri hill, subsequently, the region was ruled by monarchs, such as Samudragupta and Shashanka. It was also a part of Harshas empire, later, the kings of the Somavamsi dynasty began to unite the region

33.
Phimeanakas
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On top of the pyramid there was a tower, while on the edge of top platform there are galleries. Phimeanakas is located inside the enclosure of the Royal Palace of Angkor Thom north of Baphuon. The temple was the point of Suryavarman Is capital. The buildings there from his reign are enclosed by a wall 600 by 250 m, with five gopuram, the tower must originally have been crowned with a golden pinnacle, as Zhou Daguan described it in his report. According to legend, the spent the first watch of every night with a woman thought to represent a Nāga in the tower, during that time. Only in the watch the king returned to his palace with the queen. If the naga who was the land owner of Khmer land did not show up for a night. One of the stele states Jayavarman VII, while on an expedition in Champa, learned that his father Dharanindravarman II had died. Jayavarmans second wife, Indradevi. composed in impeccable Sanskrit the inscription. panegyric of her sister Jayarajadevi, which included biographical detail of Jayavarman VII

34.
All Saints' Church, Earls Barton
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All Saints Church, Earls Barton is a noted Anglo-Saxon Church of England parish church in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire. It is estimated that the dates from the later tenth century. A doorway on the side of the tower, and originally another opening on the west face. There is a belfry at the uppermost storey, the tower is constructed of stone rubble and rendered on the outside, and is decorated with vertical limestone pilaster strips and strapwork. At the corners of the tower, the walls are strengthened by long vertical quoin stones bedded on horizontal slabs, the storeys are divided by projecting stone string courses, and at each successive storey, the walls become slightly thinner, creating a step at each string course. In the 12th century the small Anglo-Saxon chancel, narrower than the tower, was razed and replaced by a nave so that the now stands at the west end. This nave was enlarged later in the 12th century and then renovated in the 13th, the east end of the chancel is 13th century. The influence is very much Roman, and this can be seen by looking at the doors, at the west doorway, pilaster strips run up the sides and continue over the head in an arch. Within this, there is an arched moulding springing from square imposts and these are decorated with vertical fluting. The jambs are of flat stones, at right angles to the wall. The form of the jambs is Roman in origin, an example of this can be seen in the Bath House of Chesters Fort on Hadrians Wall. Windows at low level on the south are mullioned with baluster shafts and arched lintels, at high level, the belfry has arched five-light windows with baluster shaft mullions. The blind arcading is purely decorative, since the arches and triangles spring from string courses rather than supporting them, in fact Warwick Rodwell has suggested that the hopeless jumble of the arcading at Earls Barton demonstrates it was mere ornament. Rodwell suggests that the design was based on timber framing but that the parts were then assembled wrongly, the position of openings in the tower makes use of this decoration by fitting within the triangles and pilaster strips. The limestone at Barnack was quarried extensively from Anglo-Saxon times and throughout the Middle Ages to build churches and cathedrals including Peterborough, in 1935, Henry Bird painted the 15th century rood screen. Its upper parts contain butterfly species that are local to the area, to the north of All Saints Church, Earls Barton, a mound and ditch almost abuts the church. Pevsner supposes that the lord of the manor regarded the church as an encroachment, following the Norman conquest of England an Anglo-Saxon called Waltheof had become the first Earl of Northampton. He married the niece of William I, Judith, and she was granted land at Buarton later named Earls Barton, the mound may have been part of a manor

35.
Al-Azhar Mosque
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Al-Azhar Mosque is an Egyptian mosque in Islamic Cairo. Al-Muizz li-Din Allah of the Fatimid Caliphate commissioned its construction for the established capital city in 970. Its name is thought to allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammads daughter Fatimah. It was the first mosque established in Cairo, a city that has gained the nickname the City of a Thousand Minarets. Al-Azhar University has long regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and sharia. Over the course of its over a millennium-long history, the mosque has been alternately neglected and these moves were reversed under the Mamluk Sultanate, under whose rule numerous expansions and renovations took place. Later rulers of Egypt showed differing degrees of deference to the mosque and provided varying levels of financial assistance. Today, al-Azhar remains an influential institution in Egyptian society that is highly revered in the Sunni Muslim world. The city of Cairo was established by Gawhar al-Ṣiqillī, a Fatimid general of Greek extraction from Sicily and he originally named it al-Mansuriyya after the prior seat of the Fatimid caliphate, al-Mansuriya in modern Tunisia. The mosque, first used in 972, may have initially been named Jāmi al-Mansuriyya and it was the Caliph al-Mu’izz li-Dīn Allāh who renamed the city al-Qāhira. The name of the mosque thus became Jāmi al-Qāhira, the first transcribed in Arabic sources, the mosque acquired its current name, al-Azhar, sometime between the caliphate of al-Mu’izz and the end of the reign of the second Fatimid caliph in Egypt, al-Aziz Billah. Azhar is the form for zahrā′, meaning splendid or most resplendent. Zahrā′ is an epithet applied to Muhammads daughter Fatimah, wife of caliph Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and she was claimed as the ancestress of al-Mu’izz and the imams of the Fatimid dynasty, one theory is that her epithet is the source for the name al-Azhar. The theory, however, is not confirmed in any Arabic source, an alternative theory is that the mosques name is derived from the names given by the Fatimid caliphs to their palaces. Those near the mosque were collectively named al-Qusur al-Zahira by al-Aziz Billah, the palaces had been completed and named prior to the mosque changing its name from Jāmi al-Qāhira to al-Azhar. The word Jāmi is derived from the Arabic root word jamaʻa, the word is used for large congregational mosques. While in classical Arabic the name for al-Azhar remains Jāmi al-Azhar, Caliph al-Mu’izz li-Din Allāh, the fourth Ismāʿīli Imam, conquered Egypt through his general Gawhar, wresting it from the Sunni Ikhshidid dynasty. By order of the Caliph, Gawhar then oversaw the construction of the enclosure of the Fatimid Caliphate and its army

36.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat

37.
Fatimid
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The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The dynasty ruled across the Mediterranean coast of Africa and ultimately made Egypt the centre of the caliphate, at its height the caliphate included in addition to Egypt varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz. The Fatimids claimed descent from Fatima bint Muhammad, the daughter of Islamic prophet Muhammad, in 921 the Fatimids established the Tunisian city of Mahdia as their new capital. In 948 they shifted their capital to Al-Mansuriya, near Kairouan in Tunisia, in 969 they conquered Egypt and established Cairo as the capital of their caliphate, Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of their empire. The ruling class belonged to the Ismaili branch of Shiism, as did the leaders of the dynasty, the existence of the caliphate marked the only time the descendants of Ali through Fatimah were united to any degree and the name Fatimid refers to Fatimah. The different term Fatimite is sometimes used to refer to the caliphates subjects, after the initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Ismaili sects of Islam, as well as to Jews, Maltese Christians, and Egyptian Coptic Christians. The Fatimid caliphate was also distinguished by the role of Berbers in its initial establishment and in helping its development, especially on the military. During the late eleventh and twelfth centuries the Fatimid caliphate declined rapidly and he founded the Ayyubid dynasty and incorporated the Fatimid state into the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid regime lasted until the twelfth century, though its leaders made little headway in persuading the Egyptian population. The Fatimid Caliphates religious ideology originated in an Ismaili Shia movement launched in the 9th century in Salamiyah, Syria by their eighth Imam and he claimed descent through Ismail, the seventh Ismaili Imam, from Fatimah and her husband ʻAlī ibn-Abī-Tālib, the first Shīʻa Imām. Thus his name was al-Fātimiyyūn Fatimid, the eighth to tenth Imams, remained hidden and worked for the movement against the periods times rulers. According to legend, Abdullah and his son were fulfilling a prophecy that the mahdi would come from Mesopotamia to Sijilmasa. They hid among the population of Sijilmasa, then an independent emirate, for four years under the countenance of the Midrar rulers, al-Mahdi was supported by dedicated Shiite Abu Abdullah al-Shii, and al-Shii started his preaching after he encountered a group of Muslim North African during his hajj. These men bragged about the country of the Kutama in western Ifriqiya, and the hostility of the Kutama towards, and their independence from. This triggered al-Shii to travel to the region, where he started to preach the Ismaili doctrine, the Berber peasants, who had been oppressed for decades by the corrupt Aghlabid rule, would prove themselves to be a perfect basis for sedition. Instantly, al-Shii began conquering cities in the region, first Mila, then Sétif, Kairouan, and eventually Raqqada, in 909 Al-Shii sent a large expedition force to rescue the Mahdi, conquering the Khariji state of Tahert on its way there. After gaining his freedom, Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah became the leader of the state and assumed the position of imam. The Fatimids existed during the Islamic Golden Age, the dynasty was founded in 909 by the eleventh Imam ʻAbdullāh al-Mahdī Billah

38.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם‎, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian

39.
Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
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The abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, in southwestern France. It was an important cultural centre in the regency of Abbot Oliba, parts of it now makes up the Cloisters museum in New York City. The origins of Cuixà abbey lie at Sant Andreu d’Eixalada, an abbey founded by the Benedictines in about 840, in the autumn of 878, the river broke its banks, flooding and destroying the monastery forcing the monks to seek refuge in the surrounding countryside. The community then transferred to Cuixà, a minor cenobitic community dedicated to Saint Germanus, the abbey continued under the protection of the count of Cerdanya and Conflent. The territory then came under the domain of the family of Wilfred I, in about 940, under the initiative of Sunifred II of Cerdanya, a new church dedicated to Saint Michael was built. In 956 the building was refurbished and made more sumptuous, the altar was consecrated on 30 September 974 by Garí. Although he probably never came there, Cesare Borgia was named by his father as abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in 1494, among other titles earning him revenues. The Abbey was nationalised along with other properties throughout France in the French Revolution. In 1790 the last monks were evicted and the Abbey was sold, subsequently, the buildings fell into disrepair. Some sculpture from the Abbey found its way into a collection of George Grey Barnard, a prominent American sculptor, in 1914, Barnard opened his Cloisters exhibit on Fort Washington Avenue, New York, along with sculpture from a number of medieval sites. The Cloisters was rebuilt and expanded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938 at Fort Tryon Park, the famous cellist, Pablo Casals, was filmed in the abbey in 1954 as he performed Bachs Suite No.1 in G Major. The Abbey was transferred back to the Benedictines proper in 1965, the Cloisters Media related to Abbaye Saint-Michel de Cuxa at Wikimedia Commons Official website - French. Sant Andreu dEixalada Catalan Wikipedia page, Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa - Visiting information - Dead link 2015

40.
Catalonia
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Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, located on the northeastern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula. It is designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy, Catalonia consists of four provinces, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain, Catalonia comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is bordered by France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, the official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. The eastern counties of these marches were united under the rule of the Frankish vassal the Count of Barcelona, in the later Middle Ages Catalan literature flourished. Between 1469 and 1516, the King of Aragon and the Queen of Castile married and ruled their kingdoms together, retaining all their distinct institutions, Courts, and constitutions. During the Franco-Spanish War, Catalonia revolted against a large and burdensome presence of the Royal army in its territory, within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia, at a high economic cost for Catalonia, until it was largely reconquered by the Spanish army. In the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the Napoleonic, in the second half of the century Catalonia experienced industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, Catalonia saw a cultural renaissance coupled with incipient nationalism while several workers movements appeared. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a Commonwealth, and with the return of democracy during the Second Spanish Republic, after the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan institutions and banning the official use of the Catalan language again. Since the Spanish transition to democracy, Catalonia has regained some political and cultural autonomy and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain, the origin of the name Catalunya is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence. During the Middle Ages, Byzantine chroniclers claimed that Catalania derives from the medley of Goths with Alans. Other less plausible theories suggest, Catalunya derives from the land of castles, having evolved from the term castlà or castlan. This theory therefore suggests that the names Catalunya and Castile have a common root, the source is of Celtic origin, meaning chiefs of battle. Although the area is not known to have been occupied by Celts, the Lacetani, an Iberian tribe that lived in the area and whose name, due to the Roman influence, could have evolved by metathesis to Katelans and then Catalans. In English, Catalonia is pronounced /kætəˈloʊniə/, the native name, Catalunya, is pronounced in Central Catalan, the most widely spoken variety whose pronunciation is considered standard. The Spanish name is Cataluña, and the Aranese name is Catalonha, the first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic. From the next era, the Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic, important remains survive

41.
Mainz Cathedral
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Mainz Cathedral or St. Martins Cathedral is located near the historical center and pedestrianized market square of the city of Mainz, Germany. This 1000-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral is the site of the see of the Bishop of Mainz. Mainz Cathedral is predominantly Romanesque in style, but later additions over many centuries have resulted in the appearance of various architectural influences seen today. It comprises three naves and stands under the patronage of Saint Martin of Tours, the eastern quire is dedicated to Saint Stephen. The cathedral also has a courtyard and statues of Saint Boniface. During Willigis time, the city of Mainz flourished economically, Willigis became one of the most influential politicians of that time, he even was regent of the empire between 991 and 994. He ordered the construction of a new cathedral in the pre-Romanesque Ottonian architecture and this new and impressive building was part of Willigiss vision of Mainz as the second Rome. Most of the synods and other important meetings were held at St. Albans Abbey, the new cathedral consisted of a double chancel with two transepts. The main hall was built in the typical triple-nave cross pattern, as was usual at that time no vault was included because of structural difficulties relating to the size of the building. Six towers rose from the church, a cloister was enclosed in the structure and a small freestanding church, St. Marys Church, connected by a colonnade. This small church developed later into the church of St. Maria ad Grada. Sandstone was used as the building material for the cathedral. The inside was plastered white under the Archbishop Bardo, probably in the middle of the 10th century, during renovations ordered by Henry IV in the late 11th century, much of the outside was also plastered, but the cornices were left exposed in their original red and yellow. It is believed that the coloring of the cathedral was changed more times, the cathedral suffered extensive damage from a fire on the day of its inauguration in 1009. Archbishop Bardo presided over the completion of the cathedral begun under Willigis, by 1037 the main portions of the body of Mainz Cathedral were complete. Willigis was buried in the church he had initiated, St. Stephans. The reason for building two chancels is not entirely clear, many scholars suggest that there is some symbolic significance, such as empire and church, or body and spirit, but no irrefutable evidence for these theories exists. Others claim that the construction has a purpose for ceremonial processions

42.
Longhua Temple
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The Longhua Temple is a Buddhist Temple dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha located in Shanghai, China. Although most of the buildings date from later reconstructions, the temple preserves the architectural design of a Song dynasty monastery of the Chan School. It is the largest, most authentic and complete ancient temple complex in the city of Shanghai, the temple was first built in 242 AD, during the Three Kingdoms Period. According to a legend, Sun Quan, King of the Kingdom of Wu, had obtained Sharira relics, to house these precious relics, the king ordered the construction of 13 pagodas. Longhua Pagoda, part of the Longhua temple complex, is said to have one of them. Like the function of the pagoda, the name of the temple also has its origin in a legend according to which a dragon once appeared on the site. The temple was destroyed by war towards the end of the Tang dynasty and rebuilt in 977 AD, under the autonomous Kingdom of Wuyue during the Northern Song dynasty period. Later in the Song dynasty, in 1064, it was renamed Kong Xiang Temple, the present architectural design follows the Song dynasty original. A modern restoration of the temple complex was carried out in 1954. The temple and monastery were originally surrounded by gardens and orchards. Viewing of the peach blossom in the Longhua gardens was an attraction for people in surrounding cities. The temple grounds have been used as a site for internment as well as for executions, public executions were held on the site in the 19th century. In 1927, the Kuomintang carried out a purge of suspected communists in Shanghai, thousands of victims of this purge were brought to the temple grounds to be executed. They are commemorated today by the Longhua Martyrs Cemetery behind the temple, the temples extensive gardens have since been almost entirely absorbed into the neighbouring Longhua Martyrs Cemetery and have been extensively reconstructed in a contemporary monumental style. A small traditional garden remains immediately adjacent to the temple buildings, the Longhua Temple occupies an area of more than 20,000 square metres and the main axis of the compound is 194 metres long. The tallest structure is the Longhua Pagoda which stands 40.4 metres high, the layout of the temple is that of a Song dynasty monastery of the Buddhist Chan sect, known as the Sangharama Five-Hall Style. Five main halls are arranged along a central north-south pointing axis, from the entrance, the buildings are, The Maitreya Hall housing a statue of Maitreya buddha and another in his manifestation as Budai, or Cloth bag monk. The Heavenly King Hall housing statues of the Four Heavenly Kings, the Grand Hall of the Great Sage is the main hall, housing statues of the historical Buddha and two disciples

43.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty

44.
Song Dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period

45.
St. Pantaleon's Church, Cologne
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The Church of St. Pantaleon is an early Romanesque church in Cologne, Germany. The church dates back to the 10th century and is one the twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne, the former monastery church is consecrated to Saint Pantaleon and the Saints Cosmas and Damian and is the oldest church of the cult of Saint Pantaleon west of Byzantium. The empress Theophanu and the archbishop Bruno the Great are buried in the church, which contains shrines of saints Alban, the first Christian martyr of Britain. Pope Benedict XVI visited the church in 2005, a Roman villa originally occupied the hill, just outside Roman Cologne, on which the church stands. Remains of this villa are still visible in the church crypt, the villa was replaced with a church around 870 and in 955, Archbishop Bruno the Great added a Benedictine abbey. Here, Bruno was buried after his death, in 966, work was begun on a new church to go with the monastery. The church was consecrated in 980, holy Roman Empress Theophanu, a Byzantine princess who was married to Emperor Otto II in 972, ordered the construction of the current facade and was also buried in the church at her own request. From 1618 onwards, the building was remodeled in several phases to a Baroque style church, the monastery was dissolved after Cologne was occupied by French revolutionary forces in 1794. The church then served as a stable, and, after Cologne became Prussian in 1815. A semaphore telegraph was placed on the roof of the church to enable communication between Cologne and the Prussian capital of Berlin. In 1890–1892 the building underwent restoration and in 1922 the church, through an exchange with the Cologne Charterhouse, again became Catholic. During the Second World War, the roof, parts of the walls and a large part of the interior were destroyed. During this restoration, in 1955-1962, a survey was conducted. Around 1956-1957, new bells were placed, and in 1963 a new organ was installed. The ceiling in the westwork was done by artist Gerhard Kadow in 1966. Pope Benedict XVI visited the church on 19 August 2005, during World Youth Day 2005, on 10 August 2006, Cardinal Joachim Meisner blessed a new chapel in the church dedicated to Saint Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei. Since the 10th century, the church holds a shrine to Saint Alban, the remains of Saint Alban probably ended up in the church after the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII of England in the 16th century. In 2002, a bone, one of the relics in the shrine, was moved to St Albans Cathedral in St Albans, England

46.
Westwork
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A westwork is the monumental, west-facing entrance section of a Carolingian, Ottonian, or Romanesque church. The exterior consists of stories between two towers. The interior includes a vestibule, a chapel, and a series of galleries overlooking the nave. A westwork is usually broader than the width of the nave and it is sometimes used synonymously with narthex. The westwork of Corvey Abbey, Germany, is the oldest extant example, the frescos inside the westwork show scenes from the Odyssey. The King, later the Emperor, and his entourage lodged in the westwork when visiting the abbey during their travels around the country, the feature was introduced into Norman architecture in the 11th century by Robert of Jumièges at the church of Jumièges Abbey, consecrated in 1067. The pattern was continued in German Gothic architecture, media related to Westworks at Wikimedia Commons

47.
Beauvais
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Beauvais archaic English, Beawayes, Beeway, Boway, is a city and commune in northern France. It serves as the capital of the Oise département, in the Hauts-de-France region, Beauvais is located approximately 75 kilometres from Paris. The residents of the city are called Beauvaisiens, together with its suburbs and satellite towns, the metropolitan area of Beauvais has a population of 103,885. Beauvais was known to the Romans by the Gallo-Roman name of Caesaromagus, the post-Renaissance Latin rendering is Bellovacum from the Belgic tribe the Bellovaci, whose capital it was. In the ninth century it became a countship, which about 1013 passed to the bishops of Beauvais, who became peers of France from the twelfth century. At the coronations of kings the Bishop of Beauvais wore the royal mantle and went, with the Bishop of Langres and its name is Gaulish for place where judgements are made, from *bratu-spantion. Some say that Bratuspantium is Beauvais, others theorize that it is Vendeuil-Caply or Bailleul sur Thérain. From 1004 to 1037, the Count of Beauvais was Odo II, in a charter dated 1056/1060, Eudo of Brittany granted land in pago Belvacensi to the Abbey of Angers Saint-Aubin. In 1346 the town had to defend itself against the English, the hoard, which contained a variety of rare and extremely rare Anglo-Norman pennies, English and foreign coins, was reputed to have been found in or near Paris. Beauvais was extensively damaged during World War I and again in World War II, much of the older part of the city was all but destroyed, and the cathedral badly damaged before being liberated by British forces on 30 August 1944. Beauvais lies at the foot of wooded hills on the bank of the Thérain at its confluence with the Avelon. Its ancient ramparts have been destroyed, and it is now surrounded by boulevards, in addition, there are spacious promenades in the north-east of the town. The average annual temperature is 9. 9°C, the annual average of 1669 hours. Hills Bray are provided to the precipitation of Beauvais, the precipitation is 669 mm on average per year, while it is 800 mm on average per year in Bray. However, the frequency of rainfall is high, the average number of days per year above the precipitation of a 1 mm is 116 days, or every third day. The fog is present, it is estimated at about 55 days a year. The department is affected by 41 days of average wind year, the citys cathedral, dedicated to Saint Peter, in some respects the most daring achievement of Gothic architecture, consists only of a transept and quire with apse and seven apse-chapels. The vaulting in the interior exceeds 46 m or 150 feet in height, the cathedral underwent a major repair and restoration process in 2008

9th century in architecture
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See also, 8th century in architecture, 10th century in architecture and the architecture timeline. About 800 – Borobudur temple in Java completed,802 Haeinsa of Korea, is constructed. Palace of Charlemagne in Aachen, Carolingian Empire completed, at Oviedo in the Kingdom of Asturias Cámara Santa constructed. First reconstruction of Oviedo Cathedral

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San Miguel de Lillo

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Tarikhaneh Temple in Iran built in 880.

1000s in architecture
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1001 – The Cathedral of Ani is built in Armenia. 1001 – St. Michaels Church, Hildesheim begun,1002 – Brihadishwara Temple of Thanjavur, India begun. 1008 – Rebuilt Torcello Cathedral in the Veneto consecrated,1009 – Saint-Martin-du-Canigou in Catalonia consecrated. Beginning of 11th century - Church of the Saviour at Berestove built

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Cathedral of Ani (1001)

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Brihadishwara Temple, Thanjavur (1002)

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Torcello Cathedral (1008)

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Saint-Martin-du-Canigou (1009)

Phnom Bakheng
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Phnom Bakheng at Angkor, Cambodia, is a Hindu and Buddhist temple in the form of a temple mountain. Dedicated to Shiva, it was built at the end of the 9th century, located atop a hill, it is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views of the much bigger temple Angkor Wat, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast. The large numb

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Phnom Bakheng

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Sun set of Phnom Bakheng

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Tonlé Sap seen from Phnom Bakheng

Khmer Empire
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The Khmer Empire, officially the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to modern Cambodia, was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. The empire, which out of the former kingdoms of Funan and Chenla. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, in present-day Cambodia, which was the site of the city during the empires zenith. Satellite imaging has re

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900 AD Red: Khmer Empire Light Green: Haripunjaya Yellow: Champa

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Archers mounted on elephants

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Bakong, one of the earliest temple mountain in Khmer architecture

Lips Monastery
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Fenâri Îsâ Mosque, in Byzantine times known as the Lips Monastery, is a mosque in Istanbul, made of two former Eastern Orthodox churches. The complex is located in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey, in 908, the Byzantine admiral Constantine Lips inaugurated a nunnery in the presence of the Emperor Leo VI the Wise. The nunnery was dedicated to

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The southern view of the Mosque, formerly the Church of St. John the Baptist, as of 2007

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Byzantine remains from the North Church (kept in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums).

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Interior of the North Church.

Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The firs

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Constantinople in the Byzantine era

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Map of Byzantine Constantinople

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Emperor Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic. Hagia Sophia, c. 1000

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Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople

Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architectu

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El Castillo, at Chichen Itza

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Detail of Lintel 26 from Yaxchilan

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Maya civilization

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Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, and El Mirador, in the lowlands, were both important cities in the Late Preclassic.

Uxmal
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Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period in present-day Mexico. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture, along with Palenque, Chichén, and Calakmul in Mexico, Caracol and Xunantunich in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala. It is located in the Puuc region and is considered one of the Maya cities most

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Pyramid of the Magician

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Map of a central portion of Uxmal

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Panorama of Uxmal

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Magician pyramid, section

Minden Cathedral
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Minden Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Gorgonius and Peter, is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Minden, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Today the church belongs to the diocese of Paderborn, over the course of many centuries, the cathedral grew from a simple Carolingian church to a monumental basilica. The High Gothic nave and its large tracer

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Minden Cathedral

Gndevank
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Gndevank is a 10th-century Armenian monastery in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia, along the Vayk-Jermuk road. The monastery is located on the west side of the Vayk-Jermuk road on the bank of the Arpo river, the old road is blocked by landslides and the monastery is approached by walking about 1.5 kilometres from the junction with the old road,

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Gndevank as seen from the road to Jermuk

East Mebon
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The East Mebon is a 10th Century temple at Angkor, Cambodia. Built during the reign of King Rajendravarman, it stands on what was an island at the center of the now dry East Baray reservoir. The East Mebon was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and honors the parents of the king and its location reflects Khmer architects’ concern with orientation and

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East Mebon

Angkor
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Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. Angkor was a megacity supporting at least 0. 1% of the population during 1010-1220. The city houses the magnificent Angkor Wat, one of Cambodias popular tourist attractions, the word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara, meaning cit

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Main complex at Angkor Wat

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Angkor Wat at sunrise

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Gate into Angkor Thom

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Buddhist monks at Angkor

Kaminarimon
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The Kaminarimon is the outer of two large entrance gates that ultimately leads to the Sensō-ji in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. The gate, with its lantern and statues, is popular with tourists and it stands 11.7 m tall,11.4 m wide and covers an area of 69.3 m2. The first gate was built in 941, but the current gate dates from 1960, the Kaminarimon was firs

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The south face of the Kaminarimon. A statue of Fūjin stands on the right and that of Raijin on the left.

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The wooden carving of a dragon on the bottom of the great red lantern on the Kaminarimon

Tokyo
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Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of its 47 prefectures. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous area in the world. It is the seat of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islan

Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referr

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The Golden Hall and five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji, among the oldest wooden buildings in the world, National Treasures, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

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Samurai warriors face Mongols, during the Mongol invasions of Japan. The Kamikaze, two storms, are said to have saved Japan from Mongol fleets.

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Samurai could kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period, 1798

Medina Azahara
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It was an Arab Muslim medieval town and the de facto capital of al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain, as the heart of the administration and government was within its walls. Built beginning in 936-940, the city included ceremonial reception halls, mosques, administrative and government offices, gardens, a mint, workshops, barracks, residences, and baths. Th

Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral
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Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral, and French national monument, located in the town of Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne. It is the seat of the Archbishops of Clermont and it is built entirely in black lava stone, which makes it highly distinctive, and visible from a great distance. Its twin spires are 108 metres tall, and tower abov

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Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral from Montjuzet Park in April 2006.

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The western façade

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Interior of the cathedral

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View from the south. The black Gothic cathedral towers above the city with its dominating spires 108 metres high.

St Nicholas' Church, Worth
–
St Nicholas Church is a Church of England parish church in Worth, a village in Crawley, England which at one time had the largest geographical parish in England. St Nicholas’ Church, Worth, is one of the oldest churches in the country and has been a place of Christian worship and devotion for well over 1000 years. It is known that the church is of

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St. Nicholas' parish church

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East end, showing apse and tower

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Interior, looking east towards the apsidal chancel

St. Cyriakus, Gernrode
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St. Cyriakus is a medieval church in Gernrode, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is one of the few surviving examples of Ottonian architecture, built in 959/960-965 by Margrave Gero and it is now used by the Protestant community of Gernrode. The church is part of the tourist route Romanesque Road, as it is an important example of an Ottonian church which

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St. Cyriakus.

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Plan of the church.

Marca Geronis
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The Marca Geronis was a vast super-march in the middle of the tenth century. It was created probably for Thietmar and passed to his two sons consecutively, Siegfried and Gero, on Geros death in 965 it was divided into five different marches, the Nordmark, the Ostmark, Meissen, Zeitz, and Merseburg. Because Siegfrieds and Geros comital seat was Mers

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The hatched portion of the map in the northeast excepting the March of the Billungs was the marca Geronis, notice the Mark Merseburg which was one of its partitions.

Tiger Hill Pagoda
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The Tiger Hill Pagoda, more officially the Yunyan Pagoda, also sometimes translated as Huqiu Tower, is a Chinese pagoda situated on Tiger Hill in Suzhou city, Jiangsu Province of Eastern China. It is nicknamed the Leaning Tower of China, the primary pagoda of the former Yunyan Temple, which was founded in 327 and rebuilt for the last time in 1871.

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Yunyan Pagoda

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The pagoda as viewed from the Tiger Hill

Suzhou
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Suzhou, formerly romanized as Soochow, is a major city located in southeastern Jiangsu Province of East China, about 100 km northwest of Shanghai. It is an economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. The city is situated on the reaches of the Yangtze River. Administratively, Suzhou is a city with a population of 4.33 million in its city

China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin

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Yinxu, ruins of an ancient palace dating from the Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)

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Flag

3.
Some of the thousands of life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE

4.
The Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the Chinese interior from incursions by nomadic pastoralists of the northern steppes.

Pre Rup
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Pre Rup is a Hindu temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built as the state temple of Khmer king Rajendravarman and dedicated in 961 or early 962. It is a mountain of combined brick, laterite and sandstone construction. The temple’s name is a modern one meaning turn the body. This reflects the belief among Cambodians that funerals were conducted at the templ

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Pre Rup

Cluny
–
Cluny or Clugny is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department of the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon, the town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910. The height of Cluniac influence was from the half of the 10th century through the early 12th

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Cluny

St. Maria im Kapitol
–
St. Maria im Kapitol is an 11th-century Romanesque church located in the Kapitol-Viertel in the old town of Cologne, Germany. The Roman Catholic church is based on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, was dedicated to St. Mary and it is one of twelve Romanesque churches built in Cologne during this period. Measuring 100 m x 40 m and encompassin

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Exterior view east side

2.
Interior view

3.
Limburger Madonna 1300

4.
Detail of the wooden door

Cologne
–
Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres

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From top to bottom, left to right: Hohenzollern Bridge by night, Great St. Martin Church, Colonius TV-tower, Cologne Cathedral, Kranhaus buildings in Rheinauhafen, MediaPark

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Cologne around 1411

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The devastation of Cologne, 1945

Banteay Srei
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Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey is a 10th-century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the area of Angkor in Cambodia and it lies near the hill of Phnom Dei,25 km north-east of the main group of temples that once belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is built largely of red sandstone,

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Banteay Srei

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Banteay Srei is known for the intricacy of its carvings. This carving is of a kala, a mythical creature representative of time and of the god Siva.

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It has been speculated that the temple's modern name, Bantãy Srĕi, is due to the many devatas carved into the red sandstone walls.

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Many niches in the temple walls contain carvings of devatas or dvarapalas.

Baksei Chamkrong
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Baksei Chamkrong is a small Hindu temple located in the Angkor complex. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva and used to hold an image of him. The temple can be seen on the side when entering Angkor Thom at the southern gate. It was dedicated to Yasovarman by his son, King Harshavarman I, the temple was completed by Rajendravarman II. The name Baksei Cham

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Baksei Chamkrong

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Indra on Airavata, with Ganesh riding his trunk on either side, at Baksei Chamkrong, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Muktesvara deula
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Mukteshvara Temple is a 10th-century Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The temple dates back to 950–975 CE and is a monument of importance in the study of the development of Hindu temples in Odisha and it is one of the prominent tourist attractions of the city. The Mukteshvara Temple is found to be the earliest

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Mukteshvara Temple

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A typical Deula temple plan. The plan is similar to Mukteshvara Temple, except that there is no second pidha deula and khakhara deula

Bhubaneswar
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Bhubaneswar, also spelt as Bhubaneshwar /ˌbʊbəˈneɪʃwər/, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. It is the largest city in Odisha and is a centre of economic, along with the old town, the region of Bhubaneswar, historically was often depicted as Ekamra Kshetra. Although the modern city of Bhubaneswar was formally established only in 1948, with m

Odisha
–
Odisha (/ɒˈrɪsə, ɔː-, oʊ-/, is one of the 29 states of India, located in the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, Odisha has 485 kilometres of coastline along the Bay of Bengal on its east, from Balasore to Malkangiri. It is the 9th largest s

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Hathigumpha on the Udayagiri Hills built in c. 150 BCE

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Location of Odisha in India

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Konark Sun Temple built by the Eastern Ganga dynasty (c. 1250) is a World Heritage Site

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Satellite view of the Mahanadi river delta

Phimeanakas
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On top of the pyramid there was a tower, while on the edge of top platform there are galleries. Phimeanakas is located inside the enclosure of the Royal Palace of Angkor Thom north of Baphuon. The temple was the point of Suryavarman Is capital. The buildings there from his reign are enclosed by a wall 600 by 250 m, with five gopuram, the tower must

1.
Phimeanakas

All Saints' Church, Earls Barton
–
All Saints Church, Earls Barton is a noted Anglo-Saxon Church of England parish church in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire. It is estimated that the dates from the later tenth century. A doorway on the side of the tower, and originally another opening on the west face. There is a belfry at the uppermost storey, the tower is constructed of stone rubbl

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Tower of All Saints parish church

2.
Old door of All Saints

3.
St Andrew and St Stephen on the rood screen painted by Henry Bird

Al-Azhar Mosque
–
Al-Azhar Mosque is an Egyptian mosque in Islamic Cairo. Al-Muizz li-Din Allah of the Fatimid Caliphate commissioned its construction for the established capital city in 970. Its name is thought to allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammads daughter Fatimah. It was the first mosque established in Cairo, a city that has gained the nickname the City of a

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Exterior view of al-Azhar Mosque. From left to right the minarets of al-Ghuri, Qaytbay, Aqbaghawiyya, and Katkhuda

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Arabic calligraphy reading Fatima az-Zahra (فاطمة الزهراء)

3.
Marble paved interior courtyard added during the Fatimid period. Two Mamluk era minarets appear in the foreground. From left to right, the double-finial minaret of Qansah al-Ghuri and the minaret of Qaytbay. Behind the dome the top of Aqbaghawiyya minaret is visible. The minaret in the far background was built by Katkhuda

4.
A Mamluk bey

Cairo
–
Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional

1.
Cairo القاهرة al-Qāhirah

2.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933). On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes, 1872. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum

3.
A rendition of Fustat from A. S. Rappoport's History of Egypt

4.
Cairo map 1847

Fatimid
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The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The dynasty ruled across the Mediterranean coast of Africa and ultimately made Egypt the centre of the caliphate, at its height the caliphate included in addition to Egypt varying are

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Fatimid green banner.

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The Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo, of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the sixth caliph, as renovated by Dawoodi Bohra

Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Su

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The Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.

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Flag

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The Greek Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion at the Temple of Dendera.

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The 1803 Cedid Atlas, showing Ottoman Egypt.

Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
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The abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, in southwestern France. It was an important cultural centre in the regency of Abbot Oliba, parts of it now makes up the Cloisters museum in New York City. The origins of Cuixà abbey lie at Sant Andreu

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Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa

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Cloister

Catalonia
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Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, located on the northeastern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula. It is designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy, Catalonia consists of four provinces, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain, Catal

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A Roman aqueduct in Tarragona.

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Flag

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The Medieval church of Sant Climent in Taüll, located at the foothills of the Pyrenees.

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La Seu Vella, Lleida

Mainz Cathedral
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Mainz Cathedral or St. Martins Cathedral is located near the historical center and pedestrianized market square of the city of Mainz, Germany. This 1000-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral is the site of the see of the Bishop of Mainz. Mainz Cathedral is predominantly Romanesque in style, but later additions over many centuries have resulted in the a

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Mainz

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Mainz Cathedral across from St. John's, 1890

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Present-day floor plan of the cathedral (↑S)

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South nave

Longhua Temple
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The Longhua Temple is a Buddhist Temple dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha located in Shanghai, China. Although most of the buildings date from later reconstructions, the temple preserves the architectural design of a Song dynasty monastery of the Chan School. It is the largest, most authentic and complete ancient temple complex in the city of Shangh

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Longhua Temple

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Longhua Temple inner courtyard

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Newly constructed front gate of Longhua. The site of the original gates, further in front, is now marked by two standing pillars and a set of original stone lions.

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Statues of the 500 arhats

Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the

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Clockwise from top: A view of the Pudong skyline, Yu Garden, China Pavilion along with the Expo Axis, neon signs on Nanjing Road, and The Bund

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The walled Old City of Shanghai in the 17th century

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Shanghai in the 1930s, with the Shanghai International Settlement and Shanghai French Concession

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The Bund in 1928; the WWI monument in the foreground was destroyed by the Japanese during WWII

Song Dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a perma

St. Pantaleon's Church, Cologne
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The Church of St. Pantaleon is an early Romanesque church in Cologne, Germany. The church dates back to the 10th century and is one the twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne, the former monastery church is consecrated to Saint Pantaleon and the Saints Cosmas and Damian and is the oldest church of the cult of Saint Pantaleon west of Byzantium. The e

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Church of St. Pantaleon, front facade

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Church of St. Pantaleon, interior

Westwork
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A westwork is the monumental, west-facing entrance section of a Carolingian, Ottonian, or Romanesque church. The exterior consists of stories between two towers. The interior includes a vestibule, a chapel, and a series of galleries overlooking the nave. A westwork is usually broader than the width of the nave and it is sometimes used synonymously

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Westwork of Corvey Abbey

Beauvais
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Beauvais archaic English, Beawayes, Beeway, Boway, is a city and commune in northern France. It serves as the capital of the Oise département, in the Hauts-de-France region, Beauvais is located approximately 75 kilometres from Paris. The residents of the city are called Beauvaisiens, together with its suburbs and satellite towns, the metropolitan a

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The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving baptism until shortly before his death